Week 10 - Budding Online Activists

 This week's readings about digital activism gave me a lot to think about. These days, I get most of my news from web 2.0 sites such as Reddit and Twitter. My phone is almost always with me and I'm able to check my sites quickly and in short bursts. Not long ago, from 2005 to about 2012, I got most of my news from The Daily Show. This isn't really an exaggeration, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart entranced a whole lot of us in those days. It seemed that traditional news outlets, especially the big cable news companies, could not be trusted. The irreverent humor combined with sincerity and thoughtfulness in TDS showed us that being informed didn't mean being bored. 

The height of my fandom of The Daily Show saw me and my college roommates drive 872 miles north from Tallahassee to Washington, D.C. to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity in 2010. For better or worse, I remember walking around the National Mall the night we arrived and having the monuments mostly to ourselves more than the actual rally. In any case, it was a great example of how we used Web 2.0 to engage in a bit of activism, both in-person and digital. Through Facebook, I connected with other friends who posted about their intentions to go to the Rally. I was able to plan to see them in person in DC among the thousands of other people who attended. Even after the rally ended, I was still able to connect with old friends from Washington State who I was not aware were at the event. They saw a post I made to Instagram about the rally that day and by that night we were having a blast in a dorm at GWU. It was a great and memorable trip and it was made better by connecting with people through web 2.0. It's likely that more people attended the rally because of the interest being shared online in social media and blogs.

                           

Some highlights from the Rally to Restore Sanity in DC, 2010

That era has come and gone so quickly that it's hard to imagine. It was truly a transitional point from the era of cable news to the new era of Web2.0 news. Now, like I mentioned, we get our news mostly online. As much as I can't stand it, a lot of people get their news from Facebook. But for young people in this generation and the next, there is no transition period. News exists online for them, not on TV to say nothing of radio or newspapers. As important as it was to teach students how to read a newspaper and critique sources, it is now just as important to teach them how to navigate news on the web.

There's a conception in the media that kids these days (Gen Z, zoomers, whatever) are digital natives and are natural techies. Our readings earlier in this class have revealed that that notion is not entirely accurate at best, and downright problematic at worst. Just because kids exist in an environment where digital technology and the web are ubiquitous, does not mean that they are any good at using the tools. On the contrary, when I was in undergrad I would frequently disparage those who used their $1,000 laptops as "Facebook machines."

Kahne and Bowyer's article in this week's readings show us that just because kids are online all the time does not mean they are active participants, either. 

For context, it is important to note that most youth do not frequently engage in either OPP or TPP. As noted earlier...we found that only 10–11% of youth engage in OPP on a weekly basis and only 10–12% of youth engage in TPP more than once during a 12- month period. In addition, more than 60% of youth did not report ever engaging in OPP–even during an election year–and more than 70% did not report ever engaging in TPP during the prior 12 months.

Indeed, while many youth are exposed to news, perspectives, and mobilization efforts via online platforms and especially via social media, most youth are not active participants. They receive messages, but rarely or never send them or, in other ways, become actively involved politically. Moreover,youth who get involved in online political activities tend to be those who are politically interested and active, who possess digital skills, and who are college educated (see Cohen et al.2012; Hargittai and Shaw 2013). Thus, substantial inequality exists, when it comes to which youth participate. (Kahne and Bowyer, 2019)

So, it's important to have digital activism lessons available for every student. Part of the problem is the question of access. Additionally, there are issues of echo chambers and intolerant views being propagated online. These are issues that are solved as we continue to learn how effective web2.0 tools are for activism. For now, Kahne and Bowyer's findings are encouraging, it seems that getting kids started with posting politically-relevant content can help them continue to do so on their own. This contributes to more socially conscious communities, and makes it likely that those working for positive change can use web2.0 tools to their advantage.